Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure: The guests were being served refreshments by the host.
- (a)The host has served refreshments to the guests.
- (b)The host serves refreshments to the guests.
- (c)The host had been serving refreshments to the guests.
- (d)The host was serving refreshments to the guests.
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The passive verb is were being served: was/were + being + past participle, the past continuous passive.
The agent after by, the host, becomes the subject.
The tense stays past continuous, and the be-form now agrees with a singular subject: was serving.
The guests move after the verb: 'serving refreshments to the guests'.
Result: 'The host was serving refreshments to the guests.' → option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)The host has served refreshments to the guests. — Has served is present perfect. A voice change keeps the tense, and 'were being served' is past continuous; 'has served' would come from 'have been served'.
- (b)The host serves refreshments to the guests. — Serves is simple present, so the time moves from past to present and the ongoing sense of 'being served' is lost. Its passive would be 'are served'.
- (c)The host had been serving refreshments to the guests. — Had been serving is past perfect continuous, an action running up to an earlier past point. Its passive would be 'had been being served', not 'were being served'.
Concept
A voice change moves who stands where. The tense and aspect stay as they are.
The agent after by becomes the subject, the passive subject moves after the verb, and the verb drops its passive be-form. For the past continuous the pair is fixed: passive was/were being + V3, active was/were + V-ing.
The be-form then agrees with the new subject, not the old one.
Serve takes two objects: the person served and the thing served. The passive here made the person, the guests, its subject and left refreshments after the verb.
In the active both orders work: 'serving the guests refreshments' or 'serving refreshments to the guests'. The options use the second.
Key facts
- Past continuous passive: was/were + being + V3 (were being served).
- Past continuous active: was/were + V-ing (was serving).
- After a voice change the verb agrees with the new subject: the host takes was, where the guests took were.
- With a two-object verb such as serve, the person served can follow to in the active: serving refreshments to the guests.
Study next
Common traps
- Keeping were from the passive when the new subject, the host, is singular.
- Reading the being in 'were being served' as a perfect and reaching for had been serving.
15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.15 runs the same conversion with a plural agent: 'The ministers were being briefed about the situation by the intelligence officers' is keyed 'The intelligence officers were briefing the ministers'.
11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.15 turns 'The letter was being typed by the secretary when the phone rang' into 'The secretary was typing the letter when the phone rang'.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.